


Colleague Without Shame

by naboru



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: Comedy, Fluff, Gen, Implied Relationships, M/M, Mentions of Violence, Snark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-29
Updated: 2017-10-29
Packaged: 2019-01-26 07:00:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12551780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/naboru/pseuds/naboru
Summary: Blast Off got hurt. Vortex is not worried, and totally doesn’t look for him in medbay. The shuttle isn’t there anyway.Characters:Vortex, Blast Off, OC (Torsion), implied Blast Off/Vortex





	Colleague Without Shame

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings/Content: fluff, comedy, mentions of violence, snark, implied relationship  
> Continuity: G1 Dysfunction AU, pre-war  
> Disclaimer: Sadly, nothing is mine.  
> Beta: ultharkitty

Vortex snuck into medbay, and peered into the rooms that weren’t locked. Most were empty, with the exception of the one where Bunker lay. One of his grenades had quite literally blown up in his face.

Once Vortex had looked into the last empty room, he frowned.

“He’s not here,” he heard from behind and turned swiftly. Torsion stood in the hallway, her hands on her hips. “Do still think you can sneak in unnoticed?”

Vortex shrugged and grinned, following her into the medics’ rec-room.

“It was only a matter of time till you’d show up anyway,” Torsion said and pulled them two energon cubes.

Vortex sat down on one of the two chairs in the small room, and tipped his head to a side. “What do you mean?”

“Blast Off,” the medic said, sitting down opposite him and pushing the second cube toward the ‘copter. “You always come here if the shuttle gets injured.” 

Vortex frowned. He didn’t like the implications, but he kept quiet and let Torsion continue. “Though, this time I expected you to come right to me instead of staring into every room and pestering my patients.”

“Why’s that? Why’s he not here anyway?” Blast Off should have been in medbay, because Vortex had broken into the shuttle’s apartment and that had been empty, too. 

Torsion sighed, and looked at him for a long moment. Right then Vortex knew something was wrong.

It was hard to imagine Blast Off’s injuries would take that long to heal. Sure, he’d got involved in a shooting, or rather, he was literally around the shooting when it happened inside him in alt-mode, but as far as Vortex knew, only a few shots had penetrated his armour, and the shuttle was tough. Coruscate had it way worse. She’d been taken offline instantly, but had already been released after her surgery.

“Blast Off is not here for the same reason I thought you’d come straight to me.” Torsion sipped from her cube. Vortex wasn’t hungry, and didn’t touch his. “He’s in the hangar.”

“What’s wrong with him?” Vortex asked. He didn’t like it. He’d learnt that Blast Off recovering in alt-mode meant bad news. He also didn’t like that no one had told him.

“One of the shots damaged a crucial part inside him that is relevant to his root mode. He can’t transform until it’s fixed.”

Vortex just looked at Torsion, expecting more. He knew she knew that even if he hadn’t had Onslaught’s clearance, he would have gotten the information one way or the other. It was one of the perks of Vortex’ position that he could move around the usual confidential information block.

With another deep vent, the medic elaborated further, her shoulder mounted scope shifting slightly. “The part that got damaged supports his laser core in root. That part is heavily shielded from the outside of his alt-mode, but not so much from his cargo hold…”

Vortex’ jaw clenched. “And you can’t get a spare?”

“We’re on it. But Blast Off’s an old HEX-model, and Altihex is very strict with its spare parts supply.” Torsion shrugged. She looked at her hands, her optics unfocused for a moment. She didn’t like the news either. “Tachyon spoke to someone from Altihex, but the only result was that ‘they’ll see what they can do’. Apparently, the guy was an aft called Star Reign.”

Vortex’ expression changed. A growl built in his vocaliser and he saw no reason to suppress it. It made Torsion look up.

“Looks like the name rings a bell?”

Vortex huffed in disgust. “You could say that.”

Torsion gave a small smile, thoughts clearly on her mind, but she didn’t say them aloud. She shook her head before she spoke again. “But like I said, we’re on it.” She leant back, the smile growing. “Tachyon took the damaged part out, and R&D is scanning it. And Brawl is collecting all that special titanium alloy he got to get the part 3D printed again.”

Vortex’s rotors shifted, and he now took a sip from the energon.

“The alloy has to be mass shifting compatible, and Brawl has a batch of it. You know he was trying to develop mass shifting rifles, don’t you?”

Vortex nodded. It was Brawl’s special project, something he was excited about and that had taken him a long time to convince Onslaught about.

“Brawl feels responsible for what happened,” Torsion answered Vortex unspoken question.

“Brawl?” Vortex raised an optical ridge. The tank hadn’t been the one who had started shooting. If there was anyone to blame – and Vortex totally did that – it was Swindle. Swindle had recommended that arms dealer to them. And Coruscate would get Swindle’s aft next time they met. The triple changer hated being ambushed.

And Vortex would have a word with Swindle, too. He was almost disappointed the arms dealer was already dead and he couldn’t have his way with him.

“Well,” Torsion’s voice dragged Vortex away from his thoughts of revenge, “Brawl thinks he should have known and should have taken out the shooter earlier.”

This was so typically Brawl, Vortex thought, but didn’t comment on it. At least it would get Blast Off his spare part. He didn’t like the thought of Blast Off having to stay in alt-mode in the hangar. Vortex would have gone nuts after a day just sitting there doing nothing.

“How’s Blast Off, aside from the missing part? I bet he’s super grumpy,” Vortex guessed with a grin.

But Torsion shook her head. “He’s very quiet? I don’t think he’s annoyed. He hardly speaks, and only sounds…” She scratched her scope as she searched for the right words. “He seems a little depressed? But you know how he is, it’s hard to tell with him, and even harder in alt-mode. He never even flares his field, so we wouldn’t know.”

Vortex nodded. He did know Blast Off, and he didn’t like what Torsion described.

* * *

Vortex snuck into hangar three, and peered around the corner for Misfire, but no one was standing guard.

Blast Off was alone. Even the hangar lights were out, and Blast Off’s bio lights didn’t shine ether. The shuttle might have been in recharge.

The cargo hold door was open, though, and Vortex grinned to himself. Before he even put the first step on the cargo ramp, the shuttle’s voice sounded over speakers, “You don’t have to sneak like that. I’ve seen you coming through the hangar door.”

Vortex winced, but grinned up at the nearest camera. “Were you expecting me?”

“I was hoping you wouldn’t come.”

“Awww,” Vortex continued and entered the cargo hold. “Don’t be so mean. I know you missed me.”

“Like I miss the sulfuric acid rain on HFV 981-393.”

Vortex laughed. The other’s tone was a relief. It was good to hear the shuttle being snarky. The view of the cargo hold made Vortex feel queasy in contrast. Almost the entire floor was opened up. There was a walkway spread over the gaping hole in the ground. Metal parts lay around, and cables emerged from the hole like tentacles from an alien beast trying to crawl out. They were thick and thin, in different colours. Some were insulated, some gleaming in bare metal.

Vortex didn’t want to stare into the dark gap, but he was too nosy, and the hole too weird and terrible to be ignored. Vortex also saw huge pipes down there, but aside from those, he couldn’t name any other part by name. The mechanisms did look alien, even though Blast Off was Cybertronian.

“If you’re here to throw something down there, I swear-“

“No.” Vortex snapped out of his musing and staring, and looked up at another camera. “Sorry,” he said with a weak smile. It was nothing like how he’d hoped he would look, but the cocky grin just was impossible to manage right now.

He moved on to the flight deck, and to his surprise found the door unlocked. With a more stable grin, Vortex sat down in the co-pilot’s chair – sideways, with his legs dangling over the armrest.

“I bet you’re super bored,” he said “We can watch TV together?”

“I wasn’t bored. And I would rather you leave me alone.”

“I don’t believe you, and I won’t.” Vortex took out a bag of energon sticks and ripped it open. “There’s this show where they bust science myths and stuff called Busted Science. We could watch that? I’ll even listen to your ranting,” Vortex offered and bit down on a stick.

“You brought _snacks_ into my flight deck?” Blast Off didn’t even mention the TV show, and Vortex shrugged.

“You only banned liquids. You never said anything about snacks.”

“I didn’t-“

“Anyway!” Vortex interrupted, and flared his field, nudging Blast Off’s plating with his signature partly apologetic and partly entertained. “Let’s watch Busted Science. There’re lots of explosions, too.”

A sigh sounded through the speakers, but it was more comforting than anything, because it was normal. “Why do I even bother with you?” the shuttle muttered, but his front window flickered and became a screen.

Vortex grinned and snuggled closer into the seat, extending his field in a hot and exciting promise. “You’ll remember again once you’re back in root-mode.”


End file.
